Milia ignored Linfel and glanced to the side. There, she saw the very quiet, trying-to-look invisible Saimon. He had already given up that fight and wanted nothing more than to run away. Sure, his Iyaval Family was influential, but it couldn't be compared to Milia's Frondor Family. His father stressed time and time again to make sure to not cause trouble for them.
"H-Hi, Lady Milia. You look as beautiful as always. Can I help you?" Of course, Saimon was still angry when she called him trash, but he was experienced in these high-level family interactions. He didn't show it on his face at all.
Milia approached him with her arms crossed. "Aren't you ashamed of yourself? A Level Two Magus and a Level Two Familiar from a big family like the Iyavals challenging a nobody Level One Magus from the countryside. Well, I have to admit even I feel like giving them a lesson now, but people like us should know when to not sully our names."
"Yes, yes, yes!" Saimon nodded vigorously. "It was a mistake on my part. I had paid a lot for my new Familiar, but it didn't live up to my expectations. It was truly a terrible idea to try to relieve my frustration this way. As you said, he is not worth our time."
Milia nodded, satisfied. "It is good that you understand. Now scram!"
"Yes, yes! I'm leaving now." Saimon quickly nodded and left with his subordinates. The smile on his face then disappeared as his expression turned dark. This was even more humiliating than if he hadn't said anything. He then glanced back, looking at Alvin and Linfel from the corner of his eyes. Everything was their fault. "Let's go back to the dormitory," he said and left.
Milia then looked at the rest of the people around the room. "The show is over. You can all go back to your own things."
No one retorted, and they quickly dispersed. There wasn't really a reason to ask the reason for Milia to be there. Not only did she have an academy mission regarding the events that occurred to Alvin's father, but his sudden display of Master Familiar Compatibility should be more than enough for someone like her to come out. If anything, a few other families and organizations should come out as well anytime soon. After all, Alvin seemed to be a great prospect for the future. They all would definitely try to recruit him.
Alvin sighed in relief now that everything was over. "Sorry for all of this, Lady Milia. From now on, just pretend Linfel doesn't exist."
Linfel's mouth twitched. "Isn't it a little too rude?"
"You have no right to complain," Felia quickly cut in. "The less you talk, the better."
Milia was still somewhat angry, but she had good control over her emotions. "Forget that. To be honest, I didn't think I would find you here. I had just returned to the academy this morning and was passing through the gate when I got a message. Someone had achieved a compatibility of 71% even though he was only 15. I just so happen to be the first one. It shouldn't take long for other factions to come after you either, so I could be said to be lucky to be close by when it happened."
The leader of her bodyguards quickly intervened. "Lady Milia, this boy seems like trouble. We should just ignore him."
"Enough, Raphael." Milia stopped him. "I know you are just trying to protect me, but I'm not that weak. We shouldn't let our emotions get in the way of our duties. Naturally, I can't ignore such a big prospect."
Raphael nodded, satisfied. "Well said, Lady Milia. It was my mistake." Still, his murderous gaze was still focused on Alvin.
Alvin tried to ignore that and looked back at Milia. "Ahem... So, what is this all about?"
Milai quickly began to explain. "Do you know about the academy's student factions?"
Alvin nodded. "They are gatherings that work together to get better resources or things like that, right?"
The Academy gave the students a lot of freedom. One of them was to allow them to create factions within the academy itself. There were even missions that were given to entire factions at once, which you couldn't acquire as an unaffiliated student. They also enjoyed better treatment. For example, the academy allocated space for the factions to settle where they could use high-level equipment in their training. The best part was that using these resources within the factions' grounds was a lot cheaper or even totally free of cost. Joining a faction was a dream for pretty much any Magus Student.
Unfortunately, it wasn't easy to join the factions. It wasn't like you could simply go to the administration office and say you created a faction to get the benefits. There were requirements, and most of them were monetary. In the end, even if the power from outside didn't have much influence in the academy itself, their wealth still made a big difference.
These factions then would only recruit members they thought were worth sharing their resources. Alvin always wanted to enter a faction, and he applied for many of them, but even though he had a slightly above-average Master Familiar Connection, just that wasn't enough. All his other fields were as average as they could be, perhaps even lower. For example, his Magus Training made clear it would take him at least another ten years to reach Level Two, which was very bad in their eyes. He simply wasn't worth nurturing.
In the end, the only way someone with such a low background could join a faction was to at least show a very high-level of talent in some field, any field. Master Familiar Connection was one such field, so Milia was contacted to make him an offer, thus the actual situation.
"It is good that you know," Milia nodded, feeling like Saimon was truly an idiot. He was even closer to Alvin when he revealed his Master Familiar Connection. Yet, he tried to cause trouble to Alvin instead of trying to recruit him. She can already imagine the leader of Saimon's faction asking for Saimon's head later.
"So, what do you think? My faction is called the Floating Blades. Are you willing to join the Floating Blades Faction?" Milia asked seriously.